NPD: US Q2 2013 digital sales grew 61%, software sales fell 3%

NPD has issued its Games Market Dynamics: US report citing digital sales growth in the US of 61% as software sales fall 3% year-over-year to $2.88 billion. According to the research firm, during Q2 2013, over 61% of revenue ($1.77 billion) came from digital content. This content included subscriptions, full-game downloads, add-on content, and mobile/social games.

New physical games contributed $769 million to the total, and used/rental sales contributed $343 million. With hardware and accessories spend included in the total, total spend drops to 9%.

“The decrease in new physical spending is partly due to the decline in the number of new SKUs released at retail, with 37% fewer new SKUs in Q2 ’13 compared to Q2 ’12, which is to be expected as developers, publishers and consumers alike prepare for the next hardware generation,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in the report.

“Increases in digital format spending offset nearly all the losses from the declines in physical format spending, with digital full game downloads and downloadable content spending experiencing a combined 27% increase when compared to Q2 ’12. Spending increases occurred across both video games and PC games in the digital format.”

Digital sales will be the future of game releases, there’s no doubt about it. Question is when will that be?